As many as 17 people, most of them security guards and maintenance workers of an apartment complex here, were arrested today in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a minor girl over a period of time, police said.
The arrests were made following a complaint by the victim's family that the 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by several men in the apartment complex.
The victim identified all the accused, police said.
The arrested include security guards, plumbers, electricians and others engaged in menial jobs, they said.
The shocking repeated sexual assault came to light after the victim, a class seven student, narrated her ordeal to her elder sister.
The sister informed their parents who lodged a police complaint on July 15.
"The girl has said that she was molested by 11 people and has identified 17 persons (including accomplices of the alleged perpetrators of the crime)," a senior police official told PTI.
The official said the girl was first sexually assaulted by a lift operator and later several others joined in the assault.
At least four of them have confessed to the assault, while two others said they had molested the girl, the official said.
Police said further investigations were on and CCTV footage would be analysed.
"We are taking it as a special case and working on it," the officer said.
Some of the accused arrested in connection with the case were manhandled by a group of advocates today at a court complex.
Meanwhile, the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) has decided not to represent the accused persons in the case considering the nature of the alleged crime, its president G. Mohanakrishnan said.
As the repeated sexual assault of the girl by several men over a period of time at an apartment complex sparked strong public outrage, a group of angry lawyers pounced on the accused when they were coming down the stairs at the Mahila court after being remanded in judicial custody.
Women constables on duty in the court complex could not prevent the attack, a video of which went viral in the social media in no time.
In the melee, eight of the accused were rushed inside the third additional family court on the ground floor while the remaining nine were sent back to the Mahila court as a tense situation prevailed in the complex.
The 17 accused were earlier produced before the Mahila court which remanded them in judicial custody till July 31.